DISCLAIMER: If you have not watched the series finale of The Sopranos yet… where’ve you been? Stay away from this post because I’m discussing a little bit about it and unless you like ruined stories, heed this WARNING!
There comes a time in the life of every sports fan where they must choose between sports (type does not matter, be it NBA, NFL or… well, no one generally chooses NHL over anything anymore - if ever) and something else. If we did a study (and we will not, for I will base my conversations with friends and folks throughout my years as qualified “research” and force you to like it), most cases show the lead opponent of watching sports is spending time with a significant (or not-so-significant, dependant on your style o’ dating) other. How do you tell your girlfriend you would rather watch Game 7 of the NBA Finals (situation for this year especially far-fetched) instead of hanging out with her to pick cherries in an orchard (situation overdrawn, far-reaching and made more dramatic — unless you live in a rural area — to be as cheesy a situation that first came to mind)?
Last night’s head-to-head, placed the Garden State Mafioso tales of Tony Soprano against the NBA dynasty conquest mission of LeBron James. The result was a good old-fashined Jersey beatdown, as most rightfully expected.
As talented as “King James” is with a basketball in-hand, the lackluster match-up of his Cavaliers taking on an established dynasty with a complete package team never stood a chance. The exact numbers have yet to be released, but my own choice of Jersey Don over San Antonio Cav beating was one many households followed.
Pressed with a 9 p.m. start time for both the NBA Finals and the series finale of HBO’s most popular TV show of all-time, the burning option in my head was picking which to watch in real-time action.
On one hand, I do have a perfectly functional TiVo with DirecTV which would have allowed me to watch The Sopranos finale after Game 2’s conclusion. Did I take advantage and do just that?
Nope.
Instead, I skipped the first hour of the NBA Finals altogether. No regrets here, either. Ten times out of ten I would have made the same decision.
Yesterday’s Sopranos was a series finale - the last of ten years’ worth of episodes. Down the road, after HBO releases a bunch of flops to try and replace the empire that was the 9-10 p.m. slot on Sunday nights, fans will think back to June 10, 2007, that day when the world sat by the TV in unison, awaiting the fate of our favorite fictional bad guy.
With the 2007 NBA Finals, only after time settles will the Spurs be truly appreciated for what they are — one of the finest, most polished old school NBA dynasties to play the game, which lacked the flair to captivate constant attention of the general sports audience. But Game 2 was not one of those “where were you when…” games for the ages for any reason other than it made fans have to choose whether to witness a sports dynasty in its prime, or a TV dynasty on its final leg of a 10-year marathon.
Whether or not the final leg was a memorable one fans will be debate for a long while. Last night’s episode left quite a bit more ’splaining to do as to the fate of the Soprano family.
Immediately when the episode faded to black, with the Sopranos all piled into a diner and set-up for what seemed to be an “unexpected” whack of the father, I knew David Chase and the Sopranos producers were thinking “DVD sales!” Alternate endings. Bonus scenes. Cast members’ takes on how the show ended.
As a man who studied business in college, I understood and respected their hustle. Their idea was to leave the demand as high as possible to capitalize later when the TV money well runs dry (A&E picked up the show in syndication, and will follow the route of Sex & the City and TBS where they’ll show edited episodes of the Mature-rated show).
As a fan of the show who caught up late but still watched each episode, investing countless time and energy into the show, the “left out to dry” ending was awful.
For ten years, Tony and the gang have been a huge part of a lot of HBO viewers’ lives. They joined my life back in my final summer before my last year of college when I was stuck serving a dull and uneventful summer in Newport News working extra to pay off bills. Working by day, getting caught up on New Jersey’s fictional feisty mafioso tales by night, the time flew right on by.
Last night ended a ten-year run of a great show that seemed to coast into mediocrity in its final season of seven. Dull storylines and a lack of action left fans like myself hoping for an over-the-top finale, fulfilling normal show expectations of wonderful gore and symbolism.
The first three-quarters of the final season were, like a few of the throwaway pointless “dream sequence” episodes, just a figment of the imagination. The final episode included a main boss of the New York family’s murder, a few mindful moments pointing out how much of a failure as a father Tony was, and finally, after a ten minutes too much of wasting shots of Meadow failing to parallel park outside of the diner, the tension built up for a “To be continued…” ending was completely anticlimactic.
Now dedicated fans have to wait and purchase or rent the Sopranos: Season Seven DVD series when it is released to find out the true “ending” to the show. The producers are evil, conniving but astute businesspeople and for that, I speak for fans everywhere who say “thanks for nothing!” in regards to last night’s finale.
As for whether we’d choose the NBA Finals over the Sopranos finale if given another chance?
Forgetaboutit.